Bio

So there's this guy named Adam...

"My brother asked me a while ago, okay maybe more than a few months ago, to write his bio. His reasoning was simple: He refuses to write his own bio, like so many do, and... I have kinda' known him all his life.

I struggled for a bit with this process - this is my brother, after all. You may have heard of him. The fear crept in.

Then procrastination.

I mean, I respect Adam a lot. He got all the musical genius in the family as far as I'm concerned. I remember him learning how to play full songs at oh, about the age of four. As kids, our dad had a lot of Bob Dylan song books, eight tracks, and a record collection that would make Paul Mawhinny swoon.

So there Adam was, trying to figure out complex guitar licks, jamming to my dad's records, and there I was, doodling boyfriend's names in the back of those books (Mrs. Angelee ; repeat.). I didn't really notice the amount of talent that was coming out if his 15 year old fingers until he started playing seriously in a few bands and then ended up in a local battle of the bands with his band, Blisst-X. There he was, banging out a killer drum solo and performing in front of a group of 500 people, and they would have WON, if it wasn't for the owner of the bar vetoing the popular vote for his 60 year old buddy who performed his one-man band on stage and got barely a clap (Karma's a b*tch - I see your bar is now shut down, Mr. Slimeball).

Since then, I've pretty much been in awe of the amount of talent Adam pours out on a daily basis. From his impressive multi-mixing where he will sing, drum, guitar, remix, and put the whole thing together himself, to his 12 track dubbing of "A Fresh Globe" - it's mixology genius, in my kinda'-biased, but objective opinion.

So, back to writing this bio-and where to start-ya. About that. Are you starting to feel my pain, even a little?

Yes, I have written bios before, however, I start writing about Adam and I draw a blank. Adjectives seem meaningless. What I want to write is,

"ADAM JOSH IS THE AWESOMEST MUSICIAN AND SHOULD HAVE A RECORD DEAL OR BE PERFORMING ALL ACROSS THE WORLD BUT HE WON'T SELL OUT TO YOUR SH*TTY RECORD COMPANY OR CANADIAN IDOL SO THAT'S WHY HE IS WHERE HE IS NOW."

But, that might not come across as um, professional. After reviewing a few different instructions on how to write a bio, I found this pretty neat page on "How to Write a Bio That Doesn't Suck". Ah! Now we are cooking with gas... as they say. In order to write a perfect bio, it instructs one to answer the following:

1) Who are you?

2) How did you get to be who you are?

3) What are you doing now?

4) What is your future?

Sounds easy enough. Who is my brother?

Amongst writer, blogger, musician, and being a moody Scorpio, he is also a philosopher, truth-seeker, and pretty idealistic. I remember him throwing out my kids' X-Box controllers because he said I was letting it ruin their lives. True, but did he hear about the kid who committed suicide because his mom did the exact same thing? I guess I didn't want to be that mom, or have that kid, and end up on the cover of every newspaper.

Okay, that's dramatic, but sometimes, you just allow the fear to overcome you instead of being the parent.

Adam is incredibly sensitive and insightful. I mean, who can write songs with such introspect and meaning without understanding himself just a little bit? No one. As a human being, Adam is not afraid of standing up for what he believes in, or calling out your bullsh*t - he sees it like it is. Which is why me, his sister, writing some fluffed-up, frou-frou bio would really get him pissy.

He also used to like to set things on fire. No need to provoke this pyro side of Adam, now, is there?

This leads me into the next question - how did Adam get here? At this point, I would probably say some joke about Adam and Eve and the garden of Eden, but, this is something he has already heard before. So in all honesty, Adam got here - in my opinion - by his own free will and desire to be what he is today. He didn't have expensive music lessons. He didn't get sent off to get his Masters in Music at the Academy of Spoon-Fed Stereotypes. Nope, he just did it.

Now, not to say that deep down, our dad's whining (our dad who played music at night and griped about his dream of becoming famous and how having to have a steady paycheque trumped his "just-around-the-corner" success.) didn't reverberate within my brother's five year old ears a little bit. You are impressionable at five. But Adam was almost entirely self-taught. It helps that he comes from a long line of male family members that all seem to be born with a guitar in their hands, but no one forced him to do this. He just loves to compose, perform, and create.

As for the, "What are you doing now, and what is your future?" questions, these are easy.

If I know my brother, he would say that no one knows their exact future, and if you want to know what he is doing now, why not check out some of his recent work or logs here or here?

As for me, I will happily write guest bios, or blogs, you-name-it... and do everyone in this World a favour and NOT pick up a guitar."

"There are a few artists that you come across in your life that make you sit up and take notice. AdamJosh and the album 'Songs about home' is an album that does exactly that and a whole lot more. The album is a sometimes brutal, often beautiful and always honest display of emotion. Songs such as '23', 'Jade' and the heartbreaking 'Knock' show off a songwriting talent that should be heard across the globe.

Adam's voice is as much an instrument as the guitar and it carrys a maturity and passion that can fill you with hope and sadness in equal amounts. Musically the album has a post-grunge acoustic edge that, though it may be out of style with a brainwashed record buying public, will always stand out from the crowd.

Real stories of real life flow through this music and that surely is worth more than a thousand other overproduced and plastic so called 'idols'. SONGS ABOUT HOME is what real songwriting is all about."